Between January and September 2023, 261 people died in clashes with military police officers (PM) on duty in the state of São Paulo, an increase of 45% compared to the same period last year, when 180 deaths were recorded. The data is from the Public Security Secretariat (SSP), released on Wednesday (09/11).
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The third quarter was the deadliest this year, with 106 deaths between July and September. The last time the state recorded more than 100 deaths resulting from confrontations with police officers in just one quarter was in the second quarter of 2021.
Decrease in the Use of Cameras
The increase in these deaths coincides with the decrease that current governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) placed in the Olho Vivo Program, which instituted the use of body cameras in the Military Police. There are 10,125 cameras in operation in all battalions in the Capital and Metropolitan Region and in some units in Santos, Guarujá, Campinas, Sumaré and São José dos Campos, but there has been no expansion of the program under the current administration. The government stated that it is promoting studies to expand the policy to other regions of the state.
Santos
Some of the deaths in recent months were concentrated in Baixada Santista, which was the target of Operation Shield between July and September. The action launched by the Military and Civil police in response to the death of a soldier from Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (Rota), at the end of July, resulted in 28 deaths resulting from police intervention in the cities of Guarujá, Santos and São Vicente. When comparing just the third quarter of 2023 with that of the previous year, there was an 86% growth, since between July and September of last year there were 57 registrations.
Lack of Personnel
The Secretary of Public Security of São Paulo, Guilherme Derrite, stated on Friday (03/11) that the state faces a shortage of military and civil police officers. According to him, there is a shortage of 20 thousand military police officers in São Paulo and while the Civil Police has a deficit of 33%.
Analysis:
Experts claim that there has been a demobilization, by the current government, of all the efforts that had been made to reduce police lethality and that this is no longer a priority for security force commands, but they also highlight other factors for the increase in these occurrences. Another factor is that, as time passes, police officers learn to deal with the camera, and this causes this control mechanism to lose some of its effectiveness. And a third point is that we have more and more violent crime, a change in the profile of criminals, who tend to attack security forces more.
Source: O Globo; Folha de São Paulo
